1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tape cassette having a lid disposed on a front open side of a cassette housing, the lid being normally biased to its closed state but being openable by application of an external force thereto. More particularly, the invention relates to a novel and highly effective tape cassette the lid of which is opened in response to an external force that is redirected as compared to the prior art so as to be better coordinated with other forces acting on the tape cassette.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There have heretofore been proposed various tape cassettes having a lid that is angularly movable upwardly into an open position, the lid being disposed at the front of a cassette housing for closing an opening therein, as disclosed for example in Japanese laid open utility model publication No. 55(1980)-40615.
One such conventional tape cassette is shown in FIGS. 9A through 9D. To load the tape cassette, denoted at 6, into a cassette loading unit 1a of a deck mechanism 1 of a recording and reproducing device, the cassette housing 6a of the tape cassette 6 is lowered. When the cassette housing 6a is thus lowered, a lid 7 which is pivotally supported on the cassette housing 6a for upward angular movement is lifted open by an engaging pin 61a on a lid raising member 61 mounted on a chassis of the cassette loading unit 1a.
The lid 7 of the tape cassette 6 is normally urged by a spring to close the front opening of the cassette housing 6a. Therefore, when the lid 7 is released from the engaging pin 61a, i.e., when the cassette housing 6a is not depressed, the lid 7 is closed.
Since the lid of the conventional tape cassette is opened when it is pushed upwardly, the lid cannot be opened with a large degree of freedom. That is, the lid cannot be opened while the tape cassette is being loaded in the cassette loading unit unless a complex mechanism is employed. Because the cassette housing is subjected to upward forces by the engaging pin 61a, the tape cassette tends to be lifted in its entirety with respect to the cassette loading unit while the lid is being opened. Therefore, the cassette housing must be forced down by application of a force that is large enough to overcome the force tending to lift the tape cassette, namely the force due to the spring that normally urges the lid in the closed direction. For this reason, the cassette loading unit is required to have a relatively powerful cassette presser mechanism, making the deck mechanism, which includes the cassette loading unit, difficult to simplify in structure and reduce in size and weight.